The Usual Suspects

Chances are good in the last 6 months you had a conversation with your lead manager (the person who distributes your purchased leads--oh, its you?) that had overtones of angst, nervous agitation, and was held in a conspiratorial whisper with regards to former or future former employees stealing your expensive leads. You undoubtedly mentioned the fact that you have a "feeling" about one or two of your sales people and that they are, as we speak, probably downloading the entire database of names. And then the discussion begins, "Mr. Lead Manager, are you tracking their behavior or reporting on their database exports? Are you searching their briefcase before going home? Doing a brain dump so they don't memorize phone numbers?"

Surprise! They are Still There!

Lead security/ theft can keep you needlessly awake at night. However, the only time you should be concerned about lead theft is when someone has erased your entire lead management system database, rendering you without leads. Short of that, no matter who took them, they are still your leads too! In fact, I would argue that if you are building your brand appropriately, you should never lose a wink of sleep.

Whats the Problem?

First, let's look at behavior. As sales organizations, we ask our people to create relationships with potential customers and to be the "face" of our organization. We impute a culture that we want communicated to leads, we standardize our sales process so that we are all "driving them to the same place". If we could get our salespeople to attend bar mitzvah's of their potential clients' son's on the weekend, we would pay for the gift! Yet, once a salesperson leaves we expect them to completely drop any relationship they have with someone they spoke with while in our employ. Unrealistic? Yes. Common? Extremely. We view our leads as gold, and anyone daring to cross the threshold of the front door with our buried treasure should be prepared to walk the plank. But why? It's because of a motivation of fear not confidence. It's because we somehow feel that as long as we are the only one to touch the leads, we will get the business.

Here's the facts--One--employees are going to leave. Period. And they WILL take deals that they cultivated while under your watch with leads YOU paid for. But, here is the hard pill to swallow, they did what you asked them to do--build a relationship. They certainly should have given the business to someone else in the company once they left. But this is where YOUR strategy to combat lead theft comes into play.

The Opportunity

1) An employee leaving creates a golden opportunity for your team to speak with every single lead in that person's pipeline. Aren't we always looking for a reason to make relevant contact with our potential clients? Imagine if everyone in the organization the day an employee left, were to call those leads and say "Hi Mrs. Smith. This is Jim from ABC Mortgage. Your consumer experience is important to us and I wanted to let you know that the agent you have been working with has left the company but I am going to make sure we do not lose any continuity. Let's discuss your current situation so I have everything updated..." Chances are good the client (who doesn't particularly care about your office politics) will tell you whether or not they are still working with the agent who left, giving you an even better understanding of what you need to do.

2)An agent taking a lead when they leave is no different than the 3 other companies that bought the lead the same time you did, or the 30 agencies that bought it as a trigger after you pulled their credit. Understand how to sell your business, not just sell against the competition. If all you are doing is selling against the competition, then you will spend all of your time trying to sniff out who the competition is and what they are doing. Focus on the pipeline and understand their needs and you won't have to figure out what everyone else is trying to do.

3)Build your brand!  Quicken Loans, the largest online mortgage lender, does an outstanding job of being a company that clients want to work with. I may like Joe, but chances are, if Joe leaves, I am still working with Quicken because I trust the brand and assume that everyone there is a Joe. So build who YOU are and who your company is. This is your differentiator so that when an employee takes names upon exiting, the lead is simply waiting for the next salesperson from your organization to take care of them because they trust your BRAND.

4)Nurture your leads. Stop thinking this is 2004 and the only GOOD lead is a fresh lead. Maybe an employee takes leads and even closes them. But be the one to get their refinance business next October. Be the one to rewrite their insurance policy in 15 months because they got to know you and trust you as you "nurtured" the lead. Don't look at the race as over this month. Stay in better contact with your leads than anyone else, be more relevant than anyone, and make them trust you so that when your ex-employee has long since forgotten about Mrs. Smith, you are selling her a car for the third grandson.

5) Lastly, close them! Nothing stops the problem of lead theft and security with a good dose of closing. The hottest leads in the house when an employee leaves should be their pipeline. Leave no excuse why the ex-employee would want those names--they are all at the closing table.

So the next time a salesperson leaves with a list of names (and they will!), look at the opportunity it creates. Can you imagine building sales contests around these newfound pipelines? Have the Lead Manager distribute the leads and see how many you can close in one day. But, above all, don't focus on trying to stop the salesperson through elaborate "catch me if you can" schemes or FBI raids. Do what you have always done-- SELL-- and it's always your BEST defense.